When it was announced that week three on The Great British Bake Off was bread week I’ll admit I did panic a little and contemplated just skipping this week all together! I’ve never made bread before and just the thought of it scared me. But I am determined to join in with baking along each week so I set about finding an easy fool proof chocolate bread recipe.
I headed straight to my favourite baking blogger Jane who blogs over at Jane’s Patisserie as she always has easy to follow yet utterly scrumptious recipes that never ever fail. I’m always making her cheesecakes which are such a big hit every time so I was super pleased to find her recipe for Sticky Chocolate Sweet Rolls. It looked easy enough so I ordered the ingredients and hoped for the best basically!
I need not have worried as is the case with all of Jane’s recipes, they turned out absolutely perfect. They were honestly so straight forward to make, I literally couldn’t believe it. I followed the recipe to the letter and they were beautiful and most importantly they taste amazing! I will definitely be making them again and again 😉
Ingredients (Makes 12)
Dough
– 600g Strong White Bread Flour, plus extra for dusting
– 14g Dried Yeast
– 75g caster sugar
– 90g Unsalted Butter
– 275ml Milk, I use full fat but you can easily use semi skimmed!
– 1 Large Egg
Filling
– 45g Butter, Melted
– 100g Caster Sugar
– 100g Light Brown Sugar
– Seeds of 1/2 Vanilla Pod
– 200g Chocolate Chips
Icing
– 200g Icing Sugar
– 1-2 tbsp water
– Cocoa powder
Method
1) Sift the flour into a large bowl, and add the caster sugar and yeast. Mix so they are all even distributed! Rub the butter into the mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs – Like when making scones! (If you’re feeling lazy, then whizz these ingredients in a food processor until breadcrumbs)
2) Heat the milk gently until warm, it should just about start steaming in the pan – mix the milk and the egg into dough and mix/knead for 7-10 minutes. I use my KitchenAid with the dough hook, it only takes 5-7 minutes to knead! It should spring back when touched (Like a cake does when cooked!)
3) Move to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm – leave in a warm place and leave to rise for 1-2 hours (I made these on a relatively chilly day so it took the full two hours)
4) Whilst the bread is proving you can make the vanilla sugar – mix the caster sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla pod seeds until a sand like texture is formed. Leave to the side.
5) Once risen, remove the dough from the bowl and roll out onto a lightly floured work surface. I rolled mine to 50cmX30cm. (20″X12″)
6) Gently brush the surface with the melted butter, then sprinkle on the Vanilla Sugar, sprinkle on the chocolate chips so they are even across the dough. Roll from the long side to the long side (so that a 50cm sausage is formed, you roll the 30cm length) Cut this into 12 pieces and place into an oven proof dish. I used a rectangular dish 30cmX24cm (12″X9.5″)
7) Cover again and leave to rise for 1 hour – towards the end of the hour heat the oven to 180C – Once the hour is up, bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown on top and cooked through! Leave to cool.
8) Once cooled, mix the icing sugar with the water, split into two bowls and mix half with a touch of cocoa powder – drizzle onto the sweet rolls and enjoy!
